And if I Fall
by AmaryllisWhimsy
Summary: "All I ever wanted," Sam says, her lips peeling and chapped, barely moving as they form the words. "Was to fly." Her eyes are not like they should be, Jake thinks. They're filmy, sort of dazed, and not here. /One-shot/


**I do not own the book series, nor the characters. This is just a quick, angst filled oneshot that I felt like writing. I kind of feel bad for doing this to my childhood heroes, but this wouldn't really leave me. Maybe in the future I'll try to write some happier Jake and Sam, eh? **

**OooOooO**

"_Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will long to return."_

_-Leonardo da Vinci_

"All I ever wanted," Sam says, her lips peeling and chapped, barely moving as they form the words. "Was to fly." Her eyes are not like they should be, Jake thinks. They're filmy, sort of dazed, and not here.

"Samantha," He says, his voice so low and soft that he doubts she can hear it. "Samantha look at me." Tears hang precariously from his eyelashes, but they don't spill. He has to get under control.

"And the closest thing that I ever had to flying," Samantha continues, seemingly unable to hear Jake's plea. "Was riding. I came close once, in San Diego, when I went ice skating, but it wasn't the same. Riding makes me feel as if I'm one with the sky."

Jake reaches out and takes hold of her hand, more gently than he ever knew he was capable of. It's cold. This makes his jaw clench, almost involuntarily. The ambulance isn't gong to get here in time. He knows it. He can feel it.

And all because some idiot got behind the wheel drunk…

"Focus on me, Sam." Jake's voice suddenly takes a commanding tone, loud enough for her to hear. She tilts her head a little, and stares at him, lips slipping into what could be called a smile.

"I am. I am," she repeats. "It's hard but I am."

"Do not stop talking to me," He orders. He will not let her go. He will keep her alive until the ambulance get's here.

"Don't be a…a…" What would grab her focus, her attention? "Don't be a brat, Sam."

Despite their glossy look, he sees a flash of indignation cross her eyes. Good.

"I'm not…I'm not being a…" She's having trouble forming the words. "You're a jerk…Jake."

If they got through this, he could live with that. So long as they got through this. Her thinking that as she was fading sent a knife like wound through him.

"I know," he replies. The truck is all bent around them. Why she had become so injured, and he only a fraction left him in complete frustration. He was amazed that he'd even been able to reach his cell phone, with everything so mangled about them.

"You…always were." A smile twitches across her face for a moment. "I…love you…for it."

He was not going to cry. He would not let himself. This wasn't going to end here. He tries to move a little closer to her, but his arm feels sickeningly unhinged. He knew that feeling. It was a break, just like the time he'd broken his leg on Witch.

Her eyes are not focusing again. He squeezes her hand, gently, trying to get her to come back.

"What if I said something crazy, Sam?" Jake asks. She stirs, but does not look at him. He feels a desperate, out of control panic fill his heart. Somewhere, distantly, he hears the sirens blaring.

"Thing…about flying…is that…you soar so high…" Her voice is so feeble. Jake yells something incoherent. He's crying too, but there's no use trying to hold back now. He can count on one hand the number of times he's cried, but this is the most horrible sort of feeling he can think of.

"What if I told you something crazy?" Jake repeats. "What if…Sam I love you." If he doesn't say it, he feels he may never get to. This isn't happening. She's graduating this year. He's going to ask her out on an official date.

This captures her attention momentarily. She weakly reaches towards him, but she doesn't have the strength or the energy. She lets it drop, and lets out a quiet sigh.

"I know. And…I too love…"

This startles him. He ignores that the world is shifting, that the dark is pulling the edges of consciousness. He can only resist it for so long, before it will overwhelm him completely. If that happens, she'll be alone, and that thought is horribly unbearable.

"When you soar…you can go too high." She lets out a rasping breath with these words. His vision is blurry, so the tear that he sees sliding down her cheek may not exist. "Jake, you go too high. And…then…then when you fall, who is going to catch you?"

The world is truly tilting now. The ambulance is roaring up, though it sounds distant in his ears. The only thing he's truly aware of his her voice and his hand in hers. Weak as it all is.

"And if I fall…I know you'll catch me."

And he must give into the dark. It pulls at him sincerely now, and he knows he did his job. The ambulance got here, Jake can let go. With a breath, he let's his sense of who he is and where he is wonder away.

The world goes quiet.

OooOooO

**Whether or not they die is up to you. This is stupidly sad, I don't know why I wrote it. Hopefully you can give me some honest feedback anyway. I notice that I tend to like to write Sam sort of dreamy…and waif like, I guess. If you like this PS Oneshot, then check out my other Phantom Stallion work under the name XXOceanBlueXX. Thanks for reading.**


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